Oh, hey – hello there.  It’s been awhile.

Lot going on, including a big move to SEATTLE.  I’d had quite enough of the constant SoCal sunshine.  That’s not sarcasm.  I really did.  I need variety.

Big plans for all this – “this” being the site.  Yet another compulsive redesign, some new posts.  I just finished up another blog for a friend, and I may have another website gig coming up.

During my training, I occasionally get asked about accessibility in Adobe Presenter & Captivate.

This link was posted by RJacquez on Twitter, regarding Captivate4 Accessibility – and I highly recommend adding him to your list of people you follow.  I’ve gotten & passed along a lot of really valuable information (on Captivate) from him.

I love my Vaio FZ-series – much as I occasionally scream at it, it’s a serious workhorse.  Admittedly, maybe sometimes it should be screaming back or at least telling me to stop screaming, because I work it to death.

However.

What I really want is a mac.  I didn’t get one last time around because of the nature of my work (one of the software pieces I teach wasn’t available for mac – and I know, I know, I could get bootcamp, but anyway…)  So I decided that next time around, I’m getting a mac.

Except now, maybe, I’d really like to get this:  The Sony L-Series, WITH TOUCH SCREEN.  How very Minority Report. Alright, it’s not a laptop, so maybe I’ll just have to get both a mac AND the desktop.  Yeah?

From pumpkin-picking excursion at a farm in SoCal last year:

So speaking of cliche (were we?), it’s been a little while since I got the iPhone.  The initial novelty has worn off – I’m no longer content to sit and play with it for hours on end, in fact, I’ve gotten kind of bored with it.  Not that that’s a bad thing.  I like it.  I like it a lot and it was downright heavenly to fly back East the other week and NOT have to drag my laptop around, because I could just keep up with email on the iPhone.

Now I’m addicted to Bejeweled & Orbital – I think it’s impossible to break level 6 in the former.  I keep my eyes out for useful apps & I’ve bought more than a few useless ones (like Vinnie Jones wakeup call).

Most recently I found iRetro Phone:

“And iRetroPhone, the goofiest $2.99 I’ve spent so far, draws an old-fashioned rotary dial on the screen.”
- Saul Hansell (New York Times – Bits Blog)

File that one under “useless” (but fun.)

Filed under “not useless” is the Adobe Photoshop App.  Admittedly, I have not used it and I’m kinda loathe to use my phone for photo-type things because I’m a “real” camera loyalist, but I’m sure I’ll break sooner or later.  And I’ll definitely use this app when I do.

Digital Paintings of Marcin Jakubowski

Click here for his website.

I caved and bought an iPhone today.

I feel so dirty and cliched and so… so titillated.  Within the first hour, I bounced back and forth between I love it/I hate it/I’m going to return it because will I really use this to it’s full extent and get my money’s worth? more times than I can count.

Truly, the reason I’d held off and tried to be above all this iPhone business is that it feels like one big cliche.  Here in Los Angeles, everyone has an iPhone and a Prius.  (Don’t even get me started on the Prius.)  True to my form, I try desperately to avoid what everyone else is doing.  Though, of course, I’m also aware that purposefully avoiding the status quo is it’s own kind of cliche.

But I digress.

Another of the reasons that I’ve tried to NOT buy an iPhone is that, while I am a lover of macs, there is much about Apple that I loathe.  I resent their advertising and this idea that I’m not just buying an iPod/iPhone/macbook pro, I’m buying a lifestyle and a cooler image.

Anyway.  I swallowed my pride and bought one.  I confess, part of me just wanted it – I’m a geek, and I love gadgets that I can play with.  (I especially love gadgets that let me return to my Tetris addiction.)

Yes, partially… I like gadgets. I just want one.  But another part of me came up with some valid reasons – some personal, some work-related.   Plus, the idea of being able to keep up with email when I visit family on the East Coast, without having to lug my laptop around, fills me with elation.  Much as I love my laptop, I am SO SICK of carrying it around on every single trip.

My valid work reasons, for wanting an iPhone, have to do with all these programming classes I’m taking.  Let’s face it.  Hand-helds are the future.  I want to explore the apps, learn how to create apps, see what’s involved in developing for this delivery medium, and I’d also like to offer the service of creating plain old regular static websites to clients in a “hand-held” format.  Meaning, I’d like to say to my clients, “I can set your website up to be viewable traditionally, and in an easy to read format for the iPhone.”  Having the iPhone in front of me now, I’ve already taken a look at some of my sites & seen what kind of tweaks I can make and I have to say… I’m enjoying the idea of this project immensely.

Right now, however, I’m quieting the music beast within.  I love anything involving my tunes & have been known to while away entire weeks making just one playlist.  I’ve just blown 2 hours going through my music library and making custom ringtones (did you know you can do that??)  Oh, my.  A girl could get used to this.

So, iPhone, you can stay.  For now.

I took a class, over summer semester, called “Internet Programming.”  Though I’ve been doing this web thing for over a decade and I’ve worked with a million different technologies & codes, I still feel that there are a lot of holes in my skill set.  It’s not enough, to me, to “have worked with” or to “know” php, javascript, etc.  I want to know them from the ground up and code them, from scratch, as well as I do XHTML.

In any case, I was skeptical of the class at first – particularly of the book chosen by the professor – Deitel’s Internet & World Wide Web: How to Program.  However, in the last week of this course (with 100% straight across the board, I might add), I have to give this book a hearty recommendation.  It’s a nice overview of all the different parts of today’s web – from understanding web 2.0 to AJAX to SQL & databases.  There’s a few chapters we didn’t cover during the summer course, and I’ll certainly hold on to this book as reference, as well as to go over the chapters that weren’t covered, on my own time.

Adobe BrowserLabs is accepting new registrants.  I’ve only looked at it for a few minutes so far, but so far is a fun tool.  I love that I can check stuff out in older versions of IE without having them installed.  Hell, I love that I can actually consider uninstalling IE completely now.

Vanilla Bakeshop
512 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-458-6644

(They do also have a Twitter account – they don’t Tweet often, but occasionally they’ll offer free cupcakes or cupcake babies, so keep your eye on it.)

Another place that I love, love, LOVE , here in Los Angeles is Vanilla Bakeshop.  I love them so much that I called to ask if they would consider delivering a cake, or massive number of cupcakes, to the East Coast for an event – no dice.  (So I’ll be on a mission, at the end of August, sampling cakes in the Philly area, trying to find something that comes anything close to what Vanilla does.  Any suggestions, please email me at nikki (at) eleven-seven (dot) com.)

Am seriously contemplating buying a cake before flying out there, taking a few slices with me and forcing the bakeshops to try it, while saying, “I want it to taste EXACTLY like this.”

I stumbled upon them when I realized that Chris’s birthday was upon me, and I had exactly 3 days to decide what to do.  I googled “birthday cake santa monica,” and found Vanilla Bakeshop.

I am so very, very glad that I did.

His cake was a German chocolate cake with vanilla bean icing and it was, truly, the most amazing cake I’ve ever had in my life.  (And trust me, I know cake.)

We now make a weekly trip to Vanilla for cupcakes, usually on Sundays, although I do occasionally stop in during the week.  They have a range of flavors always on offer, as well as special daily flavors.  (I highly recommend Tuesdays, pumpkin cupcake and peanut butter cupcake day.)  Although, with as many wonderful flavors as they have, I have a hard time choosing anything than their black & white or bittersweet variety.

F*ck it – if I can’t find a bakery that passes the test around Philadelphia, I’ll seriously take a freight load of cupcake on the plane with me and transport them myself.